The Gas Tax

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, the momentum for an increase in the
Federal gas tax continues to build. This weekend's excellent New York
Times editorial made the case why the increase is needed and long
overdue. Costs of repair increase dramatically the longer they are
delayed. In the meantime, Americans paid billions of dollars for
congestion, wasted gas, and repairing damage to their cars, and
thousands of lives are lost due to unsafe roads. This followed an
editorial in The Washington Post making the same argument, joining USA
Today, L.A. Times, and a variety of newspapers across the country.

Recently, we have seen eight Senators from both parties who have been
identified as stepping up, either supporting a gas tax or at least
being open to it. We have seen leadership at the State level as eight
States in the last 2 years have increased gas taxes, including some
very red States like Wyoming and New Hampshire. Here in the House,
there are already 136 Members who have signed a bipartisan letter
urging the leadership to act on providing appropriate funding that is
sustainable and dedicated.

Well, Mr. Speaker, we do have a solution. This issue has been studied
extensively, including two Presidential commissions during the Bush
administration. The conclusion was that there is no better, more
effective solution than simply raising the gas tax, which hasn't been
increased in 22 years.

People know America is falling behind as it is falling apart. The
concern about the financial impact of a gas tax increase on families is
waning. As gas prices plummet, my corner gas station is selling
gasoline at $1.60 per gallon less than its peak last year.

I will be reintroducing the funding proposal I had in the last
Congress. That legislation was widely supported by a range of interests
that included labor, business, the professions, local government,
transit, environmentalists, truckers, AAA, and cyclists. They all
agreed that there is a critical need to fund investments in rebuilding
and renewing America.

Mr. Speaker, the arguments today are basically the same that were
used by President Ronald Reagan in his Thanksgiving Day address in
1982. He used his nationwide radio speech 33 years ago to call for an
increase that more than doubled the Federal gas tax. He pointed out
that that tax is actually for the people who benefit from using it,
that the user fee would cost less than the damage to repair their cars
from damage due to poor conditions from roads and bridges. As President
Reagan said, it would probably be less than a pair of shock absorbers.

He pointed out that the gas tax then, as now, had not been raised in
more than two decades, and that repairing infrastructure that was
failing would put hundreds of thousands of people to work while it
protected the investment in our infrastructure as well as in our
automobiles.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to step up. The States are doing
their part. People are exploring innovative financing approaches
involving the private sector. People are looking at creative ways to
design and build projects, but there is no substitute for the 25
percent of infrastructure funding that comes from the Federal
partnership. It is absolutely essential for projects that are
multiyear, projects that are multimodal and that involve a number of
jurisdictions, often a number of States.

This May we face the expiration of the short-term highway trust fund
fix from last summer. We are back in the exact same situation we were
then. Failing to address the funding issue head-on has meant that we
haven't had a 6-year reauthorization approved by Congress since 1997.
Since then, we have had two ever-shorter reauthorizations and 21
temporary extensions. Over $60 billion of general fund money has been
needed to just prop up our inadequate system.

Mr. Speaker, no country has become great planning and building its
infrastructure 6 months at a time. It is time to capitalize on falling
oil prices, on the momentum that is building around the country, and
the realization that we need to act now.

I strongly urge my colleagues to join me and, indeed, President
Reagan in this long overdue action. America will be better off, the
economy will be stronger, communities will be more livable and our
families safer, healthier, and more economically secure.

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